Jose Altuve and the marathon season(s)

When Jose Altuve was first discussing his intentions to play winter ball back in August, he stressed that despite a career-high in at-bats and games played and the first exposure to big league routines, he was still young.

Ah, to be 21.

Those young legs, young arms and all the other parts of a young swing, finished 2011 with 898 plate appearances. That’s 391 when making rubble of the minors, 234 with the Astros proper and this winter, a whopping 273 when putting together an MVP-like campaign for Magallanes of the Venezuelan Winter League.

The aggressively swinging second baseman tallied 82 hits in his native country, bringing his year-end count to 282. He hit .339 this winter with a .381 on-base percentage and a .455 slugging percentage.

The Astros allowed Altuve to remain with the club until the end of the season despite the climbing totals.

“If he weren’t having success it would be one thing,” general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “But when you’re playing in an environment like that in winter ball where it gets pretty intense at the end of December … any time you can have a player go through that experience, especially a position player where you worry a little bit less about the wear and tear, I’m an advocate of it.

“He’s having a great experience and it will benefit him next year here in Houston.”

As the year turned, the regular season turned to playoffs, a round robin in the Venezuelan league. Altuve has sat out and the Astros have been told that he was pondering shutting it down, while reports out of Venezuela say that he may still be back for later playoff games.

He is at the top of the depth chart at second base this season for the Astros, who love the swing but didn’t get a ton of value from his rookie season because of patience, which will be a key.

Altuve walked five times in 234 plate appearances with the big league club last year and 16 in those 273 with Magallanes. Should those rates not escalate, he’ll need a stratospheric batting average to produce positive value. Not that those heights are necessarily beyond him.